Wednesday, July 30, 2014

With the help of Roadtrippers.com, our daughter has planned some adventures and sightseeing for us as we make the looong drive from California in order deliver her and our grandson - and their "stuff" - safely to her husband near Chicago, Illinois.

After traveling to Utah's Zion National Park and some sites in Grand Junction, Colorado, we're moving on to....Kansas!Yes, we'll be road tripping through Dorothy Gale and Laura Ingalls Wilder country on our way across several Midwestern states to Illinois...The Road to Oz...I'm hoping we can visit the OZ Museum in Wamego, KS!

According to the Kansas Historical Society website,Kansans have mixed feelings for Baum and his story. Dorothy, a little girl from Kansas, lives in a bleak, drab environment...The Kansas Baum describes was based on his experiences living in South Dakota in the 1880s. Many Kansans found this description of Kansas unjust and untrue...but after having traveled through the colorful and exciting Land of Oz, Dorothy exclaims as she taps together the heels of her ruby slippers, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home." Many Kansans point to Dorothy's desire as the more important message of the work.

The "Real" Little House on the Prairie...

This map shows the Ingalls' family travels in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.Unfortunately our route won't take us as far south as Independence, Kansas, to see a replica of the real Little House on the Prairie...

...so we'll just have to settle for a tour in the video below from the awesome website about Laura Ingalls, Frontier Girl.

In 1869, the Ingalls' family moved to this location, 12 miles southwest of Independence, Kansas. They stayed here about a year before returning to their earlier home in Pepin, Wisconsin. Laura Ingalls Wilder was only 3 when the family lived in Kansas, but when she started writing the "Little House" books, she based Little House on the Prairie on memories of her older family members: Pa, Ma, and Mary. The Michael Landon television series Little House on the Prairie was not set at this location, but at Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where the family moved in 1874. The small Little House on the Prairie cabin at this location is a recreation [of the original home] based on the description found in the book. The foundation of a small house believed to have been the home of the Ingalls' family, was found at this location in 1977. [source: kansastravel.org]

1 comment:

We love the Oz Museum in Wamego, so I'm so glad you made it there! When I was young, the only Oz location was "Dorothy's House" in Liberal, in extreme southwestern Kansas. I still want to visit it someday, too, but the museum in Wamego is much more spectacular. I was in Independence this Friday, but we were in a hurry to get to Joplin, so no stopping at the LHOTP Museum this time. We visited it 2 years ago, though, and loved it. Pa's real hand-dug well! :) Happy travels!

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I've been married to my wonderful husband for 33 years. We have 3 grown children - who remember fondly our Family Read Aloud Time. Recently we've added two little grandsons to our family, who already love books. I can usually be found exploring libraries (the big, old ones are my favorites!)

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"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."

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